Cloaking is a black hat search engine optimization technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different to that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the User-Agent HTTP header of the user requesting the page. When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a server-side script delivers a different version of the web page, one that contains content not present on the visible page. The purpose of cloaking is to deceive search engines so they display the page when it would not otherwise be displayed.

Cloacking is categorized below the Black Hat SEO Techniques. It is a unreliable method used to cheat the search engines to rank well for desired keywords. It is used for the presentation of the different forms of content to search engines and several different presentations to users.

Basically cloaking is what human reading the site would see different content or information than the Googlebot or other search engine robot reading the site. Most of the time, cloaking is implemented in order to improve search engine ranking by misleading the search engine robot into.

Sometimes cloaking can happen unintentionally, which you will have to watch out for. For example, if you use frames on your site (even though the practice has been outdated for 10 years) you will be using three different html files to create the page design. When Google indexes this, it will only index 1 of the 3 files. Google will be reading one of the files, but the design of three files will be showing. This actually does constitute as cloaking even though there is no bad intentions behind it. Sometimes hiding links or using invisible text can also be considered cloaking.

Cloaking generally means to present different version of web page contents from of search engines to search robots and human visitors based on their browser's user agent or IP address. It's a deceptive method used to cheat search engines in order to rank well for desired keywords.

Cloaking generally means to present different version of web page contents from of search engines to search robots and human visitors based on their browser's user agent or IP address. It's a deceptive method used to cheat search engines in order to rank well for desired keywords.

Cloaking defines in above quotes. I just want to add types of cloaking here:

IP address Cloaking - a method of presenting different contents based on determining IP addresses. e.g. Search engines with certain IP addresses will be shown a one version of a web page and all other IP addresses will be shown another version.

User-Agent Cloaking - a method of delivering different versions of a website based on User-Agent. e.g. Search engines and/or users using different versions of web browsers are served with different contents of a web page.

HTTP_REFERER Header Cloaking - if a user is coming from a certain website (e.g. clicking a link from search results or a website) they will be presented a different version of a website based on the HTTP_REFERER header value.

HTTP Accept-Language Header Cloaking - may be used to show different versions of a website based on a users web browser language without letting them for an option of language selection.

JavaScript Cloaking - users with JavaScript enabled browsers are shown one version while users with JavaScript turned off (like search engines) are shown another version of a website.

Finally, cloaking can be a dangerous thing so be careful while using it.